m 
* 

01 


05 


ADDRESS 


ILLUSTRATIVE    OF    THE 


NATURE  AND  POWER  OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES, 


DUTIES   OF   THE   FREE   STATES; 


DELIVERED    AT    THE    REQUEST 


INHABITANTS    OF    THE    TOWN    OF    QUINCY,    MASS. 


ON  THURSDAY,  JUNK  5,  1856. 


BY     JOSIAH     QUINCY. 


anto  ISnlargetr  Bt'nce  Bdi&ern. 


BOSTON: 
TICK  NOR     AND      FIELDS. 


M.DCCC.LVI. 


\ 


ADDRESS 


ILLUSTRATIVE    OP    THE 


NATURE  AND  POWER  OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES, 


DUTIES  OF  THE  FREE  STATES; 


DELIVERED    AT    THE    REQUEST 


INHABITANTS    OF    THE    TOWN    OF    QUINCY,   MASS., 


ON  THURSDAY,  JUNE  5,  1856. 


BY     JOSIAH     QUINCY. 


lltmto  anfo  ISnlargetr  since  JBdifarg. 


BOSTON: 
TICKNOR     AND      FIELDS. 

M.DCOC.LVI. 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  FREE  STATES, 

WHO    ARE    ENTREATED    TO     CONSIDER    THE    VIEWS    AND 
STATEMENTS    IT    PRESENTS. 


THE  question  to  be  decided,  at  the  ensuing  Presidential  election,  is,  Who 
shall  henceforth  rule  this  nation,  —  the  Slave  States,  or  the  Free  States  ? 
All  the  aspects  of  our  political  atmosphere  indicate  an  approaching  hurri 
cane.  Whether  it  shall  sweep  this  Union  from  its  foundations,  or  whether  it 
shall  be  prosperously  weathered,  depends,  under  Heaven,  on  the  man  whom 
the  people  shall  choose  to  pilot  them  through  the  coming  storm.  In  my 
judgment,  that  man  is  JOHN  CHARLES  FREMONT.  I  have  not,  and  never  had, 
any  connection  with  the  party  that  selected  him.  Personally,  I  know  him 
not ;  but  I  have  read  the  history  of  his  life,  and  believe  him  to  be  a  man  as 
much  marked  out  by  Providence  for  the  present  exigency  of  our  nation 
as  Washington  was  for  that  of  our  American  Revolution. 

He  comes,  from  whence  great  men  usually  do  come,  from  the  mass  of 
the  people.  Nursed  in  difficulties,  practised  in  surmounting  them ;  wise  in 
council;  full  of  resource;  self-possessed  in  danger;  fearless  and  foremost 
in  every  useful  enterprise ;  unexceptionable  in  morals ;  with  an  intellect 
elevated  by  nature,  and  cultivated  in  laborious  fields  of  duty,  —  I  trust  he  is 
destined  to  save  this  Union  from  dissolution ;  to  restore  the  Constitution  to 
its  original  purity ;  and  to  relieve  that  instrument,  which  Washington  de 
signed  for  the  preservation  and  enlargement  of  freedom,  from  being  any 
longer  perverted  to  the  multiplication  of  Slave  States  and  the  extension  of 
slavery. 

JOSIAH   QUINCY. 
QUINCY,  July,  1856. 


BOSTON:  PRINTED  BY  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON. 


ADDRESS. 


FELLOW-TOWNSMEN,  —  I  come,  at  your  request,  in  the 
spirit  of  liberty  and  truth,  to  speak  on  topics  worthy  to  be 
heard  and  pondered  by  you  and  every  inhabitant  of  the 
Free  States  of  this  Union.  They  will  relate  to  your  liber 
ties  and  duties.  The  former  has  been  struck  down  in  the 
Senate  Chamber,  at  Washington,  by  slaveholders.  In 
Kansas,  the  blood  of  freemen  has  been  shed,  by  the  pistols 
and  bowie-knives  of  slaveholders,  under  circumstances  of 
unparalleled  violence.  What  place  more  suitable  to  speak 
words  of  boldness  concerning  the  obligations  of  freemen, 
or  with  more  hope  of  effect,  than  in  the  north  precinct  of 
the  old  town  of  Braintree,  now  Quincy,  where  those  devoted 
assertors  of  liberty,  John  Adams,  John  Hancock,  Josiah 
Quincy,  jun.,  and  John  Quincy  Adams,  were  educated,  and 
passed  their  youth,  and  where  the  graves  of  three  of  them 
are  within  the  hearing  of  my  voice  ? 

In  early  life,  from  1805  to  1813,  I  served  as  Representa 
tive  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  from  the  town  of 
Boston.  I  was  an  active  member  of  the  Federal  party 
formed  by  Washington,  and  have  never  belonged  to  any 
other.  Though  sympathizing  in  feeling  with  Free  Soilers 
and  Abolitionists,  I  have  never  concurred  in  the  measures 

M 190539 


of  either.  My  heart  has  been  always  much  more  affected 
by  the  slavery  to  which  the  Free  States  have  been  subjected, 
than  with  that  of  the  negro.  Placed  successively,  since 
1820,  in  the  offices  of  Judge  of  the  Municipal  Court,  of 
Mayor  of  Boston,  and  of  President  of  Harvard  College,  I 
have  abstained  from  all  connection  with  politics  for  thirty- 
four  years,  except  by  voting;  and  now  I  come,  at  your 
request,  to  offer  views  and  opinions  on  the  present  crisis  of 
public  affairs,  derived  from  the  light  of  history,  and  from  the 
counsels  and  advice  of  Washington. 

The  blow  on  the  head  of  Sumner  was  not  intended  for 
him  alone.  It  was  struck  at  Liberty  herself,  in  one  of  her 
most  sacred  temples.  It  was  a  public  notice  and  declara 
tion,  to  every  man  in  the  Free  States,  that  liberty  of  speech 
no  longer  existed  in  Congress  for  him  or  for  his  Representa 
tive  ;  that  whoever,  coming  from  the  Free  States,  dare  to 
utter  a  word  in  opposition  to  the  views,  or  in  derogation  of 
the  power,  of  slaveholders,  will  speak  at  the  peril  of  life. 
There  is  nothing  new  in  this  system  of  intimidation. 
Fifty  years  ago,  it  was  an  approved  practice  of  slaveholders. 
In  that  day,  men  from  the  Free  States,  who  were  open 
opponents  to  the  administration,  often  carried  pistols  in 
self-defence.  Others,  urged  by  their  friends  to  do  it,  declined  ; 
being  unwilling,  under  any  circumstances,  to  have  the  life 
of  a  fellow-being  on  their  consciences.  The  only  difference 
between  our  times  and  the  past  is  this  :  heretofore  they 
brandished  the  bludgeon ;  now  they  have  brought  it  down. 
Formerly  the  bowie-knife  was  only  seen  in  its  sheath,  or 
half-drawn  by  way  of  terror;  now  it  is  seen  glistening 
in  their  hands,  or  steeped  in  the  blood  of  freemen  in 
Kansas. 

This  state  of  things  naturally  leads  thoughtful  minds  to 
reflect  on  the  actual  condition  of  this  Union,  —  of  Slave 
States  politically  united  with  Free  States.  Those  living 
under  the  former  are  in  a  perpetual  consciousness  of  danger. 


It  cannot  be  otherwise,  however  they  may  attempt  to  con 
ceal  it  from  others  and  from  themselves.  It  is  impossible 
that  three  hundred  thousand  whites,  who  are  the  masters, 
surrounded  by  three  million  of  blacks,  who  are  slaves,  can 
live  otherwise  than  under  a  never-ceasing  sense  of  danger. 
The  mode  of  maintaining  the  subjection  of  their  slaves  is, 
therefore,  the  constant  object  of  their  thoughts. 

In  the  Free  States,  on  the  contrary,  from  twenty  to 
twenty-five  millions  of  whites  exist,  with  proportionate 
superiority  in  wealth,  activity,  and  physical  power,  without 
any  care  of  or  danger  from  slaves. 

This  difference  of  condition  in  the  two  species  of  States 
produces  unavoidably,  in  slaveholders,  a  continual  sense  of 
danger  from  within,  and  of  prospective  danger  from  without. 
The  immense  superiority  of  physical  power  in  the  Free 
States,  combined  with  a  knowledge  of  their  own  inherent 
weakness,  creates  in  their  minds  a  belief  that  their  own 
political  existence,  and  that  of  their  slaves,  depends  upon 
obtaining  and  keeping  the  control  of  the  Free  States.  Na 
ture,  in  the  human  as  in  every  other  animal,  compensates 
positive  or  comparative  weakness  by  some  quality  which  is 
equivalent  for  defence.  In  the  case  of  the  Slave  States, 
she  supplies  the  want  of  strength  by  art.  The  operation  of 
this,  in  effecting  their  great  object  of  obtaining  and  keeping 
the  control  of  the  Free  States,  it  is  my  purpose  briefly  to 
illustrate  from  the  history  of  this  Union. 

The  art  by  which,  for  more  than  fifty  years,  the  Slave 
States  have  subjugated  the  Free  States,  and  vested  in  their 
own  hands  all  the  powers  of  the  Union,  they  call  policy. 
Its  proper  name  is  cunning;  that  "left-handed  wisdom,"  as 
Lord  Bacon  calls  it,  which  the  Devil  practised  in  the  garden 
of  Eden,  —  "  divide  and  conquer."  By  this,  they  established 
the  seat  of  national  government  in  a  slave  country,  and 
thus  surrounded  Congress  with  an  atmosphere  of  slavery, 
and  subjected  the  Free  States  to  its  influences,  in  the  place 


where  the  councils  of  the  nation  are  held,  and  where  the 
whole  public  sentiment  is  hostile  to  the  principles  of  the 
Free  States  ;  and  where,  in  case  of  collisions  resulting  in 
actions  at  law  and  indictments,  slaveholders  are  judges, 
jurors,  and  executioners.  This  location  of  the  seat  of  govern 
ment  has  been  one  of  the  most  potent  causes  of  that  domi 
nion  over  the  nation  which  they  have  acquired. 

Again :  by  cunning,  they  inserted  Louisiana  into  the  Union, 
not  only  without  the  concurrence  of  the  Free  States,  but 
without  so  much  as  asking  it,  —  a  measure  which  has  been 
the  Pandora's  box  of  all  our  evils. 

Another  of  their  arts  is  arrogance,  or  an  insolent  assump 
tion  of  superiority.  This,  though  a  result  of  their  condition 
as  masters  of  slaves,  is  of  great  power.  "  Like  boldness,*  it  is 
the  child  of  ignorance  and  vanity  ;  yet  it  fascinates,  and  binds, 
hand  and  foot,  those  that  are  shallow  in  judgment  or  weak 
in  courage,  and  prevaileth  even  with  wise  men  at  weak  times. 
It  hath  done  wonders  in  popular  States."  In  Slave  States, 
slaveholders  are  sovereigns,  and  deem  themselves  entitled 
to  govern  everywhere.  In  them,  with  few  inconsiderable 
exceptions,  they  are  proprietors  of  all  the  lands ;  which  few 
persons  can  afford  to  hold,  except  owners  of  slaves.  As  the 
rate  of  wages  is  regulated  by  the  expense  of  supporting 
slaves,  it  is,  of  course,  the  least  possible.  Of  consequence, 
slaves  are  the  successful  rivals  of  the  white  poor ;  being  more 
obedient,  and  the  expense  of  supporting  them  being  less. 
Thus  the  tvhite  poor,  in  the  Slave  States,  are  reduced  to  a 
state  of  extreme  degradation  ;  in  some  respects,  lower  than 
the  negro.  They  cannot  dig  ;  for  field-labor  to  a  white  per 
son  is  there  a  disgrace.  To  beg,  they  are  ashamed  ;  and 
they  have  no  master  to  whom  they  can  look  for  support. 
Having  no  land,  they  have  no  political  power :  the  value  of 
their  labor  is  below  that  of  the  slave  ;  and  their  actual  condi 
tion  comparatively  that  of  extreme  wretchedness.  One-half 

*  Lord  Bacon's  Essay  on  Boldness. 


of  the  white  population  of  the  Slave  States  are  said  to  be  in 
that  condition.*  In  the  vocabulary  of  slaveholders,  liberty 
means  only  that  planters  should  be  independent,  and  have 
no  superiors. 

Educated  under  circumstances  which  make  pride,  and 
exercise  of  power,  the  chief  elements  of  their  character,  they 
come  to  Congress  with  the  arrogant  spirit  of  aristocratic 
despots ;  looking  down  on  the  Representatives  of  the  Free 
States  as  an  inferior  class ;  jealous,  fearful,  and  hating  all 
talents  which  they  cannot  command  ;  courting,  coaxing, 
fawning  on  all  who  will  become  their  tools,  so  long  as  they 
are  obedient,  —  when  their  servility  is  no  longer  useful, 
throwing  them  away  with  contempt.  The  different  states 
of  society  expand  this  arrogance.  It  is  well  known,  that, 
in  the  Free  States,  there  is  no  honor  in  fighting  a  duel; 
that,  in  most  of  them,  to  give  or  accept  a  challenge  would 
put  an  end  to  a  man's  hope  of  political  advancement.  It 
is  also  well  known  that  the  public  sentiment  is  altogether 
the  reverse  in  the  Slave  States.  In  these,  to  fight  a  duel  is 
an  evidence  of  gallantry.  To  kill  a  man  in  a  duel  is  a  glory, 
not  a  disgrace.  Life  itself  depreciates,  where  killing  a 
slave  is  often  venial.  For  shooting  a  schoolmaster  through 
the  brain  for  whipping  a  refractory  boy,  juries  acquit. 
According  to  the  standard  by  which  distributive  justice 
is  dispensed  in  a  slaveholder's  court  in  the  city  of  Wash 
ington,  three  hundred  dollars  is  an  ample  retribution 


*  Since  this  address  was  in  the  press,  a  citizen  of  Virginia  has  been  compelled 
to  leave  the  State,  having  had  his  life  threatened  for  uttering  the  language  of  Wash 
ington  in  respect  of  slavery.  His  statements  corroborate  those  contained  in  this 
address  relative  to  the  depressed  state  of  the  laboring  white  men  in  Slave  States. 
There  ai*e  now  probably  thousands  of  noble-spirited  slaveholders  in  those  States,  who 
are  true  to  the  character,  and  partake  of  the  spirit  and  virtues,  of  Washington, 
who  dare  not  express  their  coincidence,  through  fear  of  the  violence  of  those  who 
at  present  possess  the  sovereignty  in  them.  It  will  be  a  disgrace  to  the  Free 
States,  if  they  do  not,  at  the  ensuing  election,  come  to  their  relief,  and  put  out  of 
power  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  this  degenerate  class  of  slaveholders.  —  See  the 
statements  of  Mr.  Underwood,  of  Virginia,  in  the  "  New- York  Herald,"  and  other 
papers  of  the  day. 


8 


for  an  assault,  endangering  life  and  future  usefulness,  made 
by  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  upon  a  Sena 
tor  sitting  in  his  seat  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  United 
States ! 

This  different  state  of  sentiment  and  opinion,  in  the  dif 
ferent  sections  of  the  United  States,  brings  into  action,  in 
Congress,  that  arrogance,  which,  as  has  been  stated,  is  an 
inseparable  element  of  a  slaveholder's  character.  The  dis 
position  to  insult,  and  endeavor  to  browbeat,  whoever  from 
the  Free  States  dares  to  cross  his  path,  is  excited  into  con 
stant  action,  not  only  from  the  belief,  that,  towards  mem 
bers  from  the  Free  States,  they  can  do  it  with  impunity, 
but  from  the  fact  that  such  bullying  is  a  sure  path  to  popu 
larity  among  their  own  constituents.  Their  boastful  chivalric 
bravery  is,  in  truth,  only  disguised  cowardice.  The  slave 
holder  knows,  that,  if  he  does  not  display  an  alacrity  to 
fight,  he  is  disgraced  at  home,  and  can  never  hope  to  be 
sent  to  Congress  afterwards ;  so  that  his  vaunted  courage 
is  nothing  but  fear  of  being  disgraced  among  his  own 
constituents,  and  losing  his  political  standing  by  showing 
what  they  call  "the  white  feather." 

To  a  man  from  the  Free  States,  who  gives  or  accepts  a 
challenge,  no  term  of  reproach  is  too  severe.  By  such 
act,  he  descends  from  the  moral  and  religious  elevation,  on 
which  the  state  of  civilization  in  the  Free  States  has  placed 
him,  to  the  semi-barbarous  level  of  chivalric  morality. 
For  his  fictitious  courage,  he  is  not  supported  in  his  trem 
bling,  as  is  the  other,  by  fear  of  the  corrupt  opinion  of  his 
constituents.  He  fights  with  the  knowledge  that  the  act 
disgraces  him  at  home  ;  that,  if  he  kills  his  antagonist,  he 
is  there  ruined  for  life;  that,  if  he  is  killed  himself,  he  dieth 
as  the  fool  dieth,  —  lying  down,  not  in  a  bed  of  honor,  but 
of  disgrace.  And  deservedly ;  for  he  abandons  the  pure 
civilized  code  of  true  honor  in  which  he  has  been  educated, 
and  heartlessly  transfers  his  allegiance  to  a  code  of  false 


honor,  invented  by  barbarous  chieftains  in  the  middle  ages 
to  support  their  projects  of  plunder  and  tyranny,  and  natu 
rally  adopted  in  this  more  civilized  age,  by  aristocratic 
dealers  in  slaves,  to  support  the  system  by  which  they  live, 
and  which  they  hope  to  perpetuate  by  making  it  universal.* 
Several  years  ago,  John  Quincy  Adams  said  to  me, 
"  Insult,  bullying,  and  threat  characterize  the  slaveholders 
in  Congress ;  talk,  timidity,)  and  submission,  the  Representa 
tives  from  the  Free  States."  What  Adams  calls  "  timidity," 
is  in  them,  for  the  reasons  above  stated,  for  the  most  part 
unavoidable.  Men  educated  under  moral,  religious,  and 
refined  influences,  meet  in  Congress  a  class  of  men,  of 
which,  at  home,  they  know  nothing,  and  would  not  will 
ingly  meet  anywhere ;  with  many  of  whom,  every  second 
word  is  an  oath ;  and  who  are  always  ready,  with  a 
pistol,  or  offer  of  a  duel,  to  support  what  they  call  their 
arguments.  This  class  was  always  in  Congress.  Formerly 
they  were  only  a  part  of  the  slaveholders  in  the  two  branches  ; 
now  they  probably  constitute  a  majority.  These  men  are 
always  ready  to  insult,  threaten,  and  bully  any  member 
of  Congress  from  the  Free  States  who  dares  to  retort  their 
obloquy  ;  which,  if  he  does,  a  duel  is  thrust  into  his  face,  as 
was  recently  into  Mr.  Wilson's,  and  which  he  so  honorably 
repelled,  in  the  temper  and  demeanor  of  a  mild,  firm  spirit 
of  civilized  chivalry.  Although  the  natural  tendency  of 
slavery  is  to  deteriorate  the  morals  and  weaken  the  self- 
control  of  the  masters  of  slaves,  yet  there  always  have  been 
men  raised  in  the  Slave  States  with  an  innate  purity  capa 
ble  of  repelling  the  influences  of  their  condition,  and  endowed 
by  nature  with  an  herculean  strength  to  strangle  in  man- 


*  These  animadversions  I  have  been  compelled  to  make  out  of  regard  to  truth 
and  duty.  No  man  can  regret  more  than  myself  their  apparent  application  to  the 
course  pursued  by  Mr.  Burlingame,  which,  in  every  other  respect,  was  wise,  lofty, 
and  honorable.  His  mistakes  were,  first,  in  admitting,  by  his  act,  that  there  could 
be,  by  any  possibility,  honor  connected  with  duelling;  and,  second,  in  descending 
to  the  level  of  such  an  antagonist. 


10 


hood  the  serpents  in  whose  coils  their  childhood  and  youth 
have  been  reared. 

Fifty  years  ago,  there  were  two  classes  of  slaveholders  in 
Congress;  the  one,  generous  in  spirit,  polished  in  man 
ners,  true  to  the  principles  of  liberty  and  the  Constitution, 
uniting  heart  and  hand  with  the  Representatives  from  the 
Free  States  in  objects  and  policy ;  of  the  same  type  and 
character  as  George  Washington,  John  Marshall,  William 
Pinckney,  Henry  W.  Dessaussure,  John  Stanley,  Nicholas 
Vandyke,  Philip  Stuart,  Alexander  Contee  Hanson,  and  a 
host  of  others,  too  numerous  to  be  recapitulated,  in  principle 
and  views  coincident  with  the  Constitution,  destitute  of  all 
desire  to  establish  the  supremacy  of  slaveholders.  They 
spoke  of  slavery,  like  Patrick  Henry,  as  "  a  curse,"  which 
blighted  the  prospects  and  weakened  the  strength  of  the 
Slave  States,  —  with  him  deplored  the  necessity  of  holding 
men  in  bondage,  declaring  their  belief  that  the  time  would 
come  when  "an  opportunity  will  be  afforded  to  abolish  this 
lamentable  evil;"  like  Governor  Randolph,  they  regarded 
themselves  "  oppressed  by  slavery,  and  treated  with  disdain 
the  idea  that  the  Slave  States  could  stand  by  themselves  ;  " 
with  Judge  Tucker,  of  Virginia,!  they  thought,  as  he  de 
clared,  that  posterity  "  would  execrate  the  memory  of  those 
ancestors,  ivho,  having-  the  power  to  avert  the  evil  of  slavery, 
have,  like  their  first  parents,  entailed  a  curse  on  all  future 
generations" 

These  men,  far  from  threatening  to  go  out  of  the  Union, 
regarded  and  spoke  of  it  as  a  main  hope  of  dependence 
against  their  own  slaves.  They  encouraged  and  supported 
every  man  from  the  Free  States  who  met  the  violence  of 
the  insolent  class  with  appropriate  spirit.  They  saw  and 
lamented  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  lower  and  baser 
slaveholders,  who,  coarse  in  language,  overbearing  in  man- 

*  See  Debates  in  the  Convention  of  Virginia, 
t  See  Tucker's  Commentaries  on  Blackstone. 


11 


ner,  caring  nothing  for  the  principles  of  liberty  and  the  Con 
stitution,  came  to  Congress  for  the  purpose  of  getting  office 
or  place,  and,  to  that  end,  were  as  subservient  to  every  nod 
of  the  administration  as  any  slave  to  that  of  his  master. 

The  nobler  class  of  slaveholders  foresaw  and  foretold 
that  the  effect  of  the  language  and  course  of  conduct  of  this 
violent  class  would  gradually  wear  away  the  affections  of 
the  Free  States,  and  lead  to  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
These  higher  spirits  could  not  submit  to  use  the  arts  and 
language  to  obtain  power  to  which  the  baser  sort  conde 
scended,  and,  of  consequence,  lost  their  influence  in  their 
respective  districts ;  to  which  these  political  filibusters  suc 
ceeded,  and  came  to  Washington,  some  to  follow  and  some 
to  direct  the  course  of  the  administration,  by  whom  they 
were  rewarded  according  to  their  talents,  their  violence,  or 
their  subserviency. 

In  1810,  John  Randolph,  in  whose  mind  Virginia  in 
cluded  all  the  South,  said  to  me,  "  Virginia  is  no  longer 
what  it  once  was.  The  spirit  of  the  old  planters  is  departed 
or  gradually  wearing  away :  we  are  overrun  by  time-servers 
office-hunters,  and  political  blacklegs."  In  a  letter  to  me, 
dated  "  Richmond,  22d  March,  1814,"  after  giving  a  melan 
choly  description  of  a  visit  he  had  just  made  to  "  the  seat  of 
his  ancestors,  in  the  maternal  line,  at  the  confluence  of  the 
James  and  Appomattox  Rivers,"  he  adds,  "  The  curse  of  sla 
very,  however,  an  evil  daily  magnifying, great  as  it  already  is, 
imbitters  many  a  moment  of  the  Virginian  landholder,  who  is 
not  duller  than  the  clod  under  his  feet."  And,  recurring  to  the 
then-existing  state  of  Virginia,  in  the  same  letter  he  adds, 
"  In  your  country,  the  state  of  society  is  not  changed,  the 
whole  fabric  uprooted,  as  it  is  with  us.  Here  the  rich  vul 
gar  are  everybody  and  every  thing.  You  can  almost  smell 
the  rum  and  cheese  and  loaf  and  lump-sugar  out  of  which 
their  mushroom  fortunes  have  sprung,  much  more  offensive 
to  my  nostrils  than  <  muck  and  merinos.'  These  fellows 


12 


will  never  'get  out  of  Black  Friars;'  and  they  make  up  in 
ostentation  for  other  deficiencies  of  which  they  are  always 
conscious,  and  sometimes  ashamed." 

Slaveholders  have  been  for  fifty  years,  a  few  only  ex- 
cepted,  the  political  masters  of  these  States.  Rampant  with 
long-possessed  authority,  in  the  natural  spirit  of  the  class, 
they  have  now  put  on  the  lash,  and  are  getting  ready  for 
use  their  fetters  and  manacles. 

Let  the  Free  States  understand  that  the  crisis  has  come. 
Their  own  fate  and  that  of  their  posterity  depend  upon  the 
fact,  whether,  in  this  crisis,  they  are  true  or  false  to  them 
selves.  The  extension  of  slavery  has  been,  from  the  days 
of  Jefferson,  the  undeviating  pursuit  of  the  slaveholders. 
Hitherto  by  cunning,  intrigue,  and  corruption,  and  now  to 
plant  it  for  ever  among  the  South-western  States,  compro 
mises  have  been  violated,  the  ballot-boxes  broken,  the  votes 
of  freemen  destroyed,  and  free  citizens  massacred  and  their 
houses  plundered  by  mobs,  encouraged  by  a  slaveholder's 
administration,  and  supported  by  the  military  arm  of  the 
United  States.  If  this  tissue  of  events  do  not  rouse  the 
Free  States  to  united  and  concentrated  action,  nothing  will. 
Their  destinies  are  fixed.  They  are  doomed  slaves.  Their 
liberties  are  gone,  their  Constitution  gone.  Nothing  is 
left  to  them  but  to  yoke  in  with  the  negro,  and  take  the 
lash,  submissively,  at  the  caprice  of  their  masters. 

But  everybody  asks,  "  What  is  to  be  done  to  throw  off 
this  slaveholders'  yoke  ?  "  The  first  step  is  to  have  a  spirit 
and  will  to  be  free.  If  there  is  a  will,  the  spirit  of  freemen 
will  soon  find  a  way.  It  is  not  the  slaveholders'  strength, 
but  your  folly.  It  is  because  they  wake,  and  you  sleep ; 
because  they  unite,  and  you  divide ;  because  they  hold  in 
their  hands  the  means  of  corruption,  and  half  of  you  per 
haps  are  willing  to  be  corrupted.  This  is  bold  language,  it 
will  be  said.  Boldness  is  one  of  the  privileges  of  old  age. 
When  can  a  man  have  a  right  to  be  bold,  if  it  be  not  when 


13 


he  is  conscious  of  being  prompted  by  truth  and  duty  alone, 
and  when  a  long  life  is  behind  him,  and  nothing  before  him 
but  a  daily-expected  summons  to  the  highest  and  most 
solemn  of  all  tribunals  ? 

I  now  proceed  to  trace  the  political  power  of  these  slave 
holders  from  its  origin,  and  show  the  present  actual  condition 
of  the  Constitution,  as  it  is  called,  of  the  United  States. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  the  cunning-  of  the  slave 
holders  was  early  developed  in  two  measures,  —  the  esta 
blishment  of  the  seat  of  government  in  a  slave  country, 
and  the  admission  of  Louisiana  into  the  Union  without  the 
assent  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  To  the  effects 
of  the  first,  I  have  already  alluded.  Those  of  the  second 
were  known  and  acknowledged  by  the  leaders  of  the  coun 
cils  of  the  nation,  at  the  time  of  its  adoption,  to  be  a  gross 
violation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  that  it  was 
a  power  the  people  of  the  States  never  granted  to  Congress. 
That  such  was  the  fact,  no  man  at  this  day  does  or  can 
deny,  except  those  who,  for  party  purposes  or  personal  ends, 
are  ready  to  say  or  do  any  thing. 

The  admission  of  Louisiana  into  the  Union,  without 
asking  or  having  the  consent  of  the  people  of  the  States 
or  of  the  States  themselves,  was  undeniably  a  stupendous 
usurpation. 

Now,  there  is  no  advice  more  distinctly  given,  no  warning 
more  solemnly  uttered,  by  Washington,  in  that  "  Farewell 
Address  to  the  People  of  the  United  States  "  which  is  called 
his  legacy,  than  this,  — "  LET  THERE  BE  NO  CHANGE  BY 
USURPATION."  That  the  admission  of  Louisiana  into  the 
Union,  without  the  assent  of  the  Free  States,  was  a  gross 
violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  a  stupendous  usurpation  of 
powers  not  given  them  by  the  Constitution,  there  can  be 
no  possible  question.  That  it  was  such,  was  known  and 
declared  by  Thomas  Jefferson  himself,  then  President  of  the 
United  States.  In  a  letter  to  a  Mr.  Breckenridge,  dated 


14 


August  the  12th,  1803,  stating  the  course  to  be  pursued  for 
the  admission  of  Louisiana,  he  unreservedly  writes :  "  Con 
gress  must  appeal  to  the  nation  for  an  additional  article  to  the 
Constitution,  approving  and  confirming  an  act  which  they 
must  previously  pass  for  its  admission.  .  .  .  The  Constitution 
has  made  no  provision  for  our  holding  foreign  territory,  still 
less  for  incorporating  foreign  nations  into  our  Union"*  And 
in  a  letter  to  Wilson  Gary  Nicholas,  dated  "  Monticello, 
Sept.  7,  1803,"  Mr.  Jefferson  enters  into  a  laborious 
argument  to  show  that  "it  was  not  the  intention  of  the 
Constitution  to  permit  Congress  to  admit  into  the  Union 
new  States  in  Territories  not  included  within  the  limits  of 
the  old  United  States;"  intimates  that  doing  so  "would 
make  the  Constitution  blank  paper  by  construction;  adding, 
that,  "  if  the  powers  granted  are  considered  '  boundless?  then 
we  have  no  Constitution ; "  and  concludes  by  declaring  it  "  im 
portant,  in  the  present  case,  to  set  an  example  against  broad 
construction,  by  appealing  to  the  people  for  new  powers."  f 
It  will  throw  light  on  the  path  of  the  duty  of  the  Free 

*  See  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  512. 

f  The  language  of  Mr.  Jefferson  is  as  follows :  "  I  am  aware  of  the  force  of  the  ob 
servations  you  make  on  the  power  given  by  the  Constitution  to  Congress  to  admit 
new  States  into  the  Union,  without  restraining  the  subject  to  the  territory  then  con 
stituting  the  United  States.  But  when  I  consider  that  the  limits  of  the  United 
States  are  precisely  fixed  by  the  treaty  of  1783,  that  the  Constitution  expressly 
declares  itself  to  be  made  for  the  United  States,  I  cannot  help  believing  the  inten 
tion  was  not  to  permit  Congress  to  admit  into  the  Union  new  States  which  should 
be  formed  out  of  the  territory  for  which,  and  under  whose  authority  alone, 
they  were  then  acting.  I  do  not  believe  it  was  meant  that  they  might  receive  Eng 
land,  Ireland,  Holland,  &c.,  into  it;  which  would  be  the  case,  on  your  construction. 
When  an  instrument  admits  two  constructions,  —  the  one  safe,  the  other  dangerous ; 
the  one  precise,  the  other  indefinite,  —  I  prefer  that  which  is  safe  and  precise.  I  had 
rather  ask  an  enlargement  of  power  from  the  nation,  where  it  is  found  necessary, 
than  to  assume  it  by  a  construction  which  would  make  our  powers  boundless.  Our 
peculiar  security  is  in  the  possession  of  a  written  Constitution.  Let  us  not  make  it 
a  blank  paper  by  construction.  I  say  the  same  as  to  the  opinion  of  those  who  con 
sider  the  grant  of  the  treaty-making  power  as  boundless.  If  it  is,  then  we  nave  no 
Constitution." 

"  I  confess,  then,  I  think  it  important,  in  the  present  case,  to  set  an  example 
against  broad  construction,  by  appealing  for  new  power  to  the  people." — Jeffer 
son's  Letter  to  Wilson  Gary  Nicholas,  dated  Monticello,  Sept.  7,  1803.  See  Jeffer 
son's  Writings,  edition  1830,  vol.  iv.  pp.  2,  3. 


15 


States  to  show  how  this  stupendous  usurpation  was  first 
effected,  and  for  them  to  learn  the  workings  of  that  cunning, 
which,  as  has  been  stated,  is  a  main  element  of  the  power 
of  slaveholders. 

When  the  leading  slaveholders  in  Congress  found  that 
their  great  head,  President  Jefferson,  had  taken  ground  on 
a  strict  construction  of  the  Constitution,  they  at  once  per 
ceived,  that,  if  his  principles  were  adopted,  there  would  be 
an  end  of  their  great  project  of  enlarging  the  sphere  of 
slavery  by  admitting  into  the  Union  territories  beyond  the 
old  limits  of  the  United  States.  They  saw  at  once,  that,  if 
the  question  of  admission  should  be  referred  to  the  people 
or  the  States  for  decision,  the  consequences  would  be  fore 
seen  by  them ;  it  would  be  negatived,  or  the  admission 
clogged  with  such  conditions  or  limitations  as  would  not  only 
defeat,  in  this  case,  the  great  project  of  the  slaveholders,  but, 
what  was  worse,  preclude  the  enlargement  of  their  power, 
by  inserting  new  Slave  States  in  territories,  obtained  by 
acquisition  or  conquest,  lying  beyond  Louisiana  itself. 
For  the  precedent  once  established,  that  Congress  had  no 
power  in  such  cases,  but  that  application  to  the  people  of 
the  States  must  first  be  made,  the  slaveholders  would  be  de 
feated  in  their  project  for  ever.  Under  these  apprehensions, 
they  set  themselves  at  work  to  satisfy  Mr.  Jefferson  that  the 
clause  in  the  Constitution  relative  to  the  admission  of  new 
States  was,  without  restriction,  to  the  territory  of  the  United 
States.  Thus  these  slaveholders,  who  at  every  period  of 
our  history,  before  and  since>  have  made  strict  construction 
their  clamor  and  their  policy,  now  saw  nothing  exceptionable 
in  advocating  the  broadest  of  all  possible  constructions,  be 
cause  they  saw,  in  its  consequences,  enlargement  of  the  slave 
holders'  power.  Jefferson  declared  that  he  was  not  con 
vinced  by  their  arguments,  but  "  that  he  was  willing  to  let 
the  bill  pass"  intimating  that  he  would  not  interpose  his 
veto ;  although,  at  the  same  time,  he  avowed  it  "  would  make 


16 


the  Constitution  a  blank  paper  by  construction."  Seeing  the 
great  benefit  which  would  result  to  the  slaveholders'  power, 
"  whatever  Congress  should  think  it  necessary  to  do"  he  was 
ready  to  sanction.  "  If  our  friends  should  think  differently 
from  me ,  I  shall  acquiesce  with  satisfaction"*  He  did  not 
pretend  that  his  conscience  was  convinced,  or  his  sense  of 
duty  altered ;  but,  seeing  the  benefit  which  would  redound 
to  the  slaveholders,  he  would  not  obstruct  the  passage  of 
the  bill. 

The  course  he  recommended  his  partisans  to  pursue,  in 
order  to  conceal  his  opinion  from  the  people  of  the  Free 
States,  and  keep  them  deceived  and  ignorant  of  the  conse 
quences  of  the  act,  —  which,  in  opposition  to  his  declared 
opinion  that  it  would  make  a  nullity  of  the  Constitution, 
he  consented  to  let  pass,  —  is  characteristic  of  the  slave 
holders'  cunning.  Finding  that,  by  influence,  by  hopes  of 
place,  or  by  office,  they  could  command  votes  enough  from 
the  Free  States  to  effect  their  purposes,  Jefferson  thus  con 
fidentially  develops  his  policy.  In  a  letter  to  Levi  Lincoln, 
dated  "  Monticello,  Aug.  30,  1803,"  he  thus  wrote:  "  Con 
cerning  the  admission  of  Louisiana,  THE  LESS  THAT  is  SAID 

ABOUT      ANY      CONSTITUTIONAL      DIFFICULTY     THE      BETTER."  f 

And  in  his  letter  to  Wilson  Gary  Nicholas,  above  cited, 
writing  on  the  same  subject,  he  says,  "Whatever  Congress 
shall  think  it  necessary  to  do  SHOULD  BE  DONE  WITH  AS 

LITTLE  DEBATE  AS  POSSIBLE,  PARTICULARLY  AS  FAR  AS  RE 
SPECTS  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  DIFFICULTY."  Here  W6  SC6 

developed  the  arts  of  the  slaveholder,  and  the  source  of  that 
insolence  and  browbeating  by  which  in  that  day  every 
man  was  assailed  who  exposed  the  nature  of  the  bill  for 
admitting  Louisiana,  and  dared  to  state  the  consequences, 
resulting  from  its  passage,  in  the  very  words  and  on  the 

*  See  Jefferson's  Letter  to  Wilson  Gary  Nicholas,  dated  Monticello,  Sept.  7, 1803. 
t  Jefferson's  Writings,  vol.  iv.  p.  1. 


17 


very  principles  which  his  partisans  knew  were  held  and 
maintained  by  Jefferson  himself. 

The  passage  of  the  Louisiana  Admission  Bill  was  effected 
by  the  arts  which  slaveholders  well  know  how  to  select  and 
apply.  Sops  were  given  to  the  congressional  watch-dogs 
of  the  Free  States.  To  some,  promises  were  made,  by 
way  of  opiates ;  and  those  whom  they  could  neither  pay 
nor  drug  were  publicly  treated  with  insolence  and  scorn. 
Threats,  duels,  and  violence  were  at  that  day,  as  now, 
modes  approved  by  them  to  deter  men  from  awakening  the 
Free  States  to  a  sense  of  their  danger.  From  the  moment 
that  act  was  passed,  they  saw  that  the  Free  States  were 
shorn  of  their  strength ;  that  they  had  obtained  space  to 
multiply  Slave  States  at  their  will ;  and  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  confidentially  told  them,  that,  from  that  moment,  the 
"Constitution  of  the  United  States  ivas  blank  paper;"  but 
more  correctly,  there  was  " no  longer  any  Constitution" 

The  slaveholders  from  that  day  saw  they  had  the  Free 
States  in  their  power ;  that  they  were  masters,  and  the 
Free  States  slaves;  and  have  acted  accordingly.  From 
the  passage  of  the  Louisiana  Bill  until  this  day,  their  policy 
has  been  directed  to  a  single  object,  with  almost  uninter 
rupted  success.  That  object  was  to  exclude  the  Free  States 
from  any  share  of  power,  except  in  subserviency  to  their 
views ;  arid  they  have  undeniably,  during  all  the  subsequent 
period  of  our  history  (the  administration  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  only  excepted),  placed  in  the  chair  of  state  either 
slaveholders,  or  men  from  the  Free  States,  who,  for  sake  of 
power,  consented  to  be  their  tools,  —  "  Northern  men  with 
Southern  principles;"  in  other  words,  men  who,  for  the 
sake  of  power  or  pay,  were  willing  to  do  any  work  they 
would  set  them  upon. 

In  the  times  of  non-intercourse  and  embargo,  I  had  fre 
quent  intercourse  with  John  Randolph,  and  for  many  years 
a  correspondence  with  him.  During  the  extreme  pressure 


18 


of  those  measures  upon  the  commerce  of  the  Northern 
States,  I  said  to  him,  "  Mr.  Randolph,  these  measures  are 
absolutely  insupportable.  You  Southern  men  will,  at  this 
rate,  put  an  end  to  parties  in  the  Northern  States,  and  we 
shall  corne  down  upon  the  South  in  one  united  phalanx." 
I  shall  never  forget  the  half-triumph  and  half-sneer  with 
which  he  replied,  "You  are  mistaken,  sir;  you  are  mis 
taken^  sir.  THE  SOUTH  ARE  AS  SURE  OF  YOUR  DEMOCRACY 

AS    THEY    ARE    OF    THEIR    OWN    NEGROES." 

Let  any  man  examine  the  history  of  the  United  States, 
from  the  reign  of  Thomas  Jefferson  to  that  of  Franklin 
Pierce,  and  he  will  find,  that,  when  the  slaveholders  have 
any  particularly  odious  and  obnoxious  work  to  do,  they 
never  fail  to  employ  the  leaders  of  the  democracy  of  the 
Free  States.  This  fact  speaks  volumes  to  the  Free  States. 
In  all  estimates  of  their  future  duties,  it  should  never  be 
forgotten,  that  every  act  by  which  their  interests  have  been 
sacrificed,  and  the  power  of  slaveholders  increased,  has 
been  effected  by  the  treachery  of  members  of  the  Free 
States. 

That  the  people  of  the  Free  States  might,  on  the  admis 
sion  of  Louisiana  into  the  Union  without  their  consent, 
have  declared  the  Constitution  so  violated  as  to  justify 
them  in  dissolving  the  Union,  no  one,  who  takes  the  author 
ity  and  principles  of  Jefferson  as  his  guide,  can  doubt.  If 
the  people  of  the  Free  States  had  then  foreseen  one-tenth 
of  the  consequences  which  they  realize  at  this  day,  can  it 
be  questioned  but  they  would  have  liberated  themselves 
from  that  prospective  thraldom  to  which  they,  in  conse 
quence,  are  now  subjected  ?  Could  they  have  foreseen 
that  the  effect  of  that  bill  would  have  been  to  invest  the 
comparatively  insignificant  body  of  slaveholders  with  the 
power  of  multiplying  Slave  States  at  their  will  in  these 
new-acquired  territories,  and  also  into  others,  admitted  by 
virtue  of  this  precedent;  that  by  these  means  that  in- 


19 


famous  and  doubly  deceptive  principle,  whereby  property, 
under  the  mask  of  persons,  is  admitted  to  a  representation, 
nominally  of  persons  in  bondage,  in  fact  a  representation 
of  their  masters,  the  oppressor  representing  the  oppressed ; 
—  could  it  have  been,  in  that  day,  possibly  anticipated 
that  the  result  of  that  admission  would  have  been  to  mul 
tiply  and  extend  the  power  of  that  false  and  iniquitous 
principle  to  an  indefinite  degree,  not  only  into  the  territories 
then  acquired,  but  into  other  lands,  invaded  and  conquered 
for  no  other  reason  than  enlarging  the  sphere  of  that  abo 
minable  principle,  in  consequences  of  which  all  the  propor 
tions  of  representation  between  the  Slave  and  Free  States, 
established  by  the  Constitution,  have  been  annihilated;  — 
can  it  be  questioned,  that  the  Free  States  would  have  at 
once  cut  adrift  from  these  slaveholders,  or,  more  wisely,  have 
intimated  a  sense  of  their  comparative  insignificance,  by 
rejecting  the  Louisiana  Bill,  or  demanding  admission  of 
that  State  upon  such  terms  as  would  have  secured  for  ever 
to  the  Free  States  that  proportion  of  power  which  the 
original  provision  of  the  Constitution  had  guaranteed  to 
them? 

While  the  Louisiana  Bill  was  in  its  passage,  it  was  said 
openly,  by  the  author  of  this  address,  in  Congress,  "  If  this 
bill  passes,  the  bonds  of  this  Union  are  virtually  dissolved ;  the 
States  which  compose  it  are  free  from  their  moral  obligations  ; 
and  that  as  it  will  be  the  right  of  all,  so  it  will  be  the  duty 
of  some,  to  prepare  definitely  for  a  separation,  —  peaceably  if 
they  co-n,  violently  if  they  must."  The  results  and  duties 
then  stated  are  as  true  and  incumbent  at  the  present  as 
they  were  at  that  day.  The  only  difference  is,  that  what 
was  then  but  foreseen  is  now  realized ;  what  was  then 
prophecy  is  now  history. 

It  is,  then,  manifest  to  the  Free  States,  that  a  mon 
strous  usurpation  has  been  effected,  and  is  intended  to  be 
enlarged  and  perpetuated. 


20 


The  warning  voice  of  Washington,  in  this  state  of  things, 

is,  "  LET    THERE  BE  NO  CHANGE    BY  USURPATION."       He    adds, 

"  CHANGE  BY  USURPATION  is  THE  CUSTOMARY  WEAPON  BY 
WHICH  FREE  GOVERNMENTS  ARE  DESTROYED."  Again  :  Wash 
ington  advises,  "  RESIST  WITH  CARE  THE  SPIRIT  OF  INNO 
VATION  UPON  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION.  THE 
SPIRIT  OF  ENCROACHMENT  TENDS  TO  CONSOLIDATE  THE  POW 
ERS  OF  ALL  DEPARTMENTS  IN  ONE,  AND  THUS  TO  CREATE  A  REAL 
DESPOTISM." 

Let  the  inhabitants  of  the  Free  States  look  into  history, 
and  see  whether  the  spirit  of  encroachment  has  not  already 
consolidated  in  the  hands  of  slaveholders  the  powers  of  all 
the  departments.  Is  there  an  officer  of  State,  from  the 
President  downwards,  who  has  not  been  selected  from 
the  knowledge  or  belief  of  his  adhesion  to  the  slaveholders' 
supremacy  ?  The  tenants  of  all  the  offices,  which  give  to 
their  possessors  daily  bread,  are  of  course  holden  to  servi 
tude  to  the  slaveholders  by  the  necessities  of  existence. 
Inquire,  and  see,  whether,  since  the  days  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  the  selections  of  the  judges  of  your  courts  of 
judicature,  even  of  the  highest,  have  not  been  made  in 
consequence  of  hard  political  services  rendered,  or  from 
principles  previously  avowed  of  the  nature  of  a  declaration 
of  subserviency  to  the  slaveholders'  power. 

The  Free  States  are  then,  undeniably,  at  this  day,  in 
that  very  state  of  things  in  which  the  warning  voice  of 
Washington  declared  "  RESISTANCE  TO  BE  THEIR  DUTY." 
During  more  than  forty  years,  the  spirit  of  a  continued 
series  of  encroachments  has  established  over  them  the  worst 
of  all  possible  despotisms^  —  THAT  OF  SLAVEHOLDERS.  The 
manner  in  which  this  duty  of  resistance,  so  distinctly 
advised  by  Washington,  is  to  be  performed  in  the  spirit 
which  he  advised,  and  which  his  life  exemplified,  is  at  this 
time  the  subject  of  earnest  and  solicitous  consideration  by 
the  people  of  the  Free  States.  It  will  be  my  endeavor  to 


21 


throw  some  light  on  their  duties,  and  on  the  course  to  be 
pursued  in  performing  them. 

The  duties  of  the  Free  States  result,  first,  from  their 
political  condition.  Of  this,  in  respect  of  the  Constitution 
of  1789,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  In  1811,  members  from 
the  Free  States  declared  in  Congress  that  the  passage 
of  the  bill  admitting  Louisiana  rendered  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  a  blank  letter ;  or,  rather,  that  thereafter 
there  was  no  Constitution.  In  that  day,  Thomas  Jefferson, 
the  great  leader  of  the  so-called  "  Democratic  Republi 
cans,"  declared  the  same  thing. 

The  continuance  in  union  at  that  time  was  simply  a 
question  of  expediency,  and  has  so  continued  until  the  pre 
sent.  To  the  Free  States,  their  continuance  in  this  connec 
tion  has  ever  since  been,  and  is  now,  not  the  result  of  moral 
obligation,  but  solely  of  expediency.  This  condition  of 
things  is  the  first  element  from  which  the  Free  States  are 
bound  to  deduce  their  duties. 

The  next  is  the  character  of  the  people  of  the  Slave 
States,  and  the  utter  incompatibility  of  that  character  with 
the  liberties  of  the  Free  States,  so  long  as  the  controlling 
powers  of  government  are  permitted  to  remain  in  the  hands  of 
slaveholders.  The  character  of  slaveholders  results  from 
their  ownership  of  slaves.  The  very  basis  of  their  political 
condition  is  not  liberty,  but  slavery.  The  equality  which 
liberty  establishes  among  freemen  and  Free  States  they 
neither  appreciate  nor  can  understand.  With  them,  equality 
means,  and  can  mean,  only  equality  among  masters  of 
slaves.  To  live  by  the  labor  of  fellow-beings  is  their 
notion  of  happiness.  To  live  idly  and  luxuriously  them 
selves,  to  govern  others,  and  appropriate  to  their  own  use 
the  fruits  of  other  persons'  industry,  is  the  substance  of 
their  felicity.  Never  to  do  any  thing  for  themselves  which 
they  can  make  others  do  for  them,  is  the  principle  of  their 
actions.  Labor  is  with  them  only  another  name  for  servi- 


22 


tude.  Those  who  labor  are  held  in  the  same  contempt, 
and  thought  entitled  to  the  same  treatment,  as  are  their 
own  negroes.  Many  years  ago,  John  Quincy  Adams  re 
lated  a  conversation  which  he  once  had  with  John  C. 
Calhoun  on  this  very  subject.  Calhoun  said  to  him,  that 
the  broad  principles  of  liberty  which  Mr.  Adams  had  been 
advocating  were  just  and  noble;  but  that  in  the  Southern 
country,  whenever  they  were  mentioned,  they  were  always 
understood  as  applying  only  to  white  men.  Domestic  labor 
was  confined  to  the  blacks;  and  such  was  the  prejudice, 
that  if  he,  who  was  the  most  popular  man  in  his  district, 
were  to  keep  a  white  servant  in  his  house,  his  character 
and  reputation  would  be  irretrievably  ruined.  Mr.  Adams 
said,  that  this  confounding  servitude  and  labor  was  one  of 
the  bad  effects  of  slavery.  Mr.  Calhoun  thought  it  was 
attended  with  many  excellent  consequences.  It  did  not 
apply  to  all  sorts  of  labor,  —  not,  for  example,  to  holding 
the  plough;  he  and  his  father  had  often  done  that:  nor  did 
it  apply  to  manufacturing  and  mechanical  labor ;  these  were 
not  degrading:  but  to  dig,  to  hoe,  to  do  work  either  in  the 
field,  the  house,  or  the  stable,  —  these  were  menial  labors, 
the  proper  work  of  slaves.  No  white  man  could  descend  to 
that.  Calhoun  thought  that  it  was  the  best  guarantee  of 
equality  among  the  whites.  It  produced  among  them  an 
unvarying  level.  It  did  not  admit  of  inequalities  among 
whites.  Mr.  Adams  replied,  that  it  was  all  perverted  sen 
timent,  mistaking  labor  for  slavery,  and  dominion  for  free 
dom.  And,  in  stating  it  in  conversation,  Adams  remarked, 
that  this  discussion  with  Calhoun  had  betrayed  to  him  the 
secret  of  their  souls.  In  the  abstract,  they  admit  slavery  to 
be  an  evil ;  but,  when  probed  to  the  quick,  they  show,  at 
the  bottom  of  their  souls,  pride  and  vainglory  in  their  very 
condition  of  masterdom.  They  fancy  themselves  more 
generous  and  noble-hearted  than  the  plain  freemen  that 
labor  for  subsistence.  They  look  down  on  the  simplicity 


of  New-England  manners,  because  they  have  no  habits  of 
overbearing  like  theirs,  and  cannot  treat  negroes  like  dogs. 
It  is  among  the  evils  of  slavery,  that  it  taints  the  very 
sources  of  moral  principle.  It  establishes  false  estimates 
of  virtue  and  vice ;  for  what  can  be  more  false  and  heart 
less  than  this  doctrine,  which  makes  the  first  and  holiest 
rights  of  humanity  depend  on  the  color  of  the  skin  ?  It 
perverts  human  reason,  and  reduces  man,  endowed  with 
logical  powers,  to  maintain  that  slavery  is  sanctioned  by 
the  Christian  religion  ;  that  slaves  are  happy  and  contented 
in  their  condition  ;  that  there  are,  between  master  and  slave, 
mutual  ties  of  attachment  and  affection ;  that  the  virtues  of 
the  master  are  refined  and  exalted  by  the  degradation 
of  the  slave  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  vent  execrations  on 
the  slave-trade,  curse  Great  Britain  for  having  given  them 
slaves,  burn  at  the  stake  negroes  convicted  of  crimes,  for  the 
terror  of  the  example,  and  writhe  in  agonies  of  fear  at 
the  very  mention  of  human  rights  as  applicable  to  people 
of  color.  "  The  impression  produced  on  my  mind,"  Mr. 
Adams  added,  "by  this  discussion,  is,  that  the  bargain 
between  freedom  and  slavery,  contained  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  is  morally  and  politically  vicious, 
inconsistent  with  the  principles  on  which  alone  our  revolu 
tion  can  be  justified,  cruel  and  oppressive  by  riveting  the 
chains  of  slavery,  by  pledging  the  faith  of  freedom  to 
maintain  and  perpetuate  the  tyranny  of  the  master,  and 
grossly  unequal  and  impolitic  by  admitting  that  slaves  are 
at  once  enemies  to  be  kept  in  subjection,  property  to  be 
secured  and  returned  to  their  owners,  and  persons  not  to 
be  represented  themselves,  but  for  whom  their  masters  are 
privileged  with  nearly  a  double  share  of  representation. 
The  consequence  has  been,  that  this  slave  representation 
has  governed  the  Union.  Benjamin's  portion  above  his 
brethren  has  ravined  as  a  wolf.  In  the  morning  he  has 
devoured  the  prey,  and  in  the  evening  has  divided  the  spoil. 


It  would  be  no  difficult  matter  to  prove,  by  recurring  to  the 
history  of  the  Union  under  this  Constitution,  that  almost 
every  thing  which  has  contributed  to  the  honor  and  welfare 
of  this  nation  has  been  accomplished  in  despite  of  them, 
or  forced  upon  them ;  and  every  thing  unpropitious  and 
dishonorable  may  be  traced  to  them." 

After  reading  and  weighing  the  opinions  of  this  great 
and  good  man,  and  reflecting  on  the  facts  which  he  states, 
can  any  one  doubt  the  incompatibility  of  the  essential 
character  of  slaveholders  with  the  government  and  man 
agement  of  the  affairs  of  freemen  ?  Can  they  who  regard 
labor  as  servitude  be  the  fit  guardians  of  the  interests  of 
men  who  regard  labor  as  their  honor,  and  its  successful  ex 
ercise  their  duty  and  glory  ? 

Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  graphically  exhi 
bits  "  the  unhappy  influence  on  the  manners  of  slaveholders 
by  the  existence  of  slavery.  The  whole  commerce  between 
master  and  slave  is  a  perpetual  exercise  of  the  most  bois 
terous  passions ;  the  most  unremitting  despotism  on  the  one 
part,  and  degrading  submission  on  the  other.  Our  children 
see  this,  learn  to  imitate  it;  for  man  is  an  imitative  animal. 
This  quality  is  the  germ  of  all  education  in  him.  From 
his  cradle  to  his  grave,  he  is  learning  to  do  what  he  sees 
others  do.  If  a  parent  could  find  no  motive,  either  in  his 
philanthropy  or  self-love,  for  restraining  the  intemperance  of 
passion  towards  his  slave,  it  should  always  be  a  sufficient  one 
that  his  child  is  present;  but,  in  general,  it  is  not  sufficient. 
The  parent  storms;  the  child  looks  on,  catches  the  lineaments 
of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the  circle  of  smaller 
slaves,  gives  a  loose  to  his  worst  passions,  and,  thus  nursed, 
educated,  and  daily  exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot  but  be 
stamped  with  odious  peculiarities.  The  man,  then,  must  be  a 
prodigy  who  can  retain  his  morals  and  manners  undepraved 
by  such  circumstances.'' 

After  such  testimony,  given  by  the  greatest  and  most 


25 


idolized  of  all  slaveholders,  as  to  the  qualities  which  are 
the  necessary  results  of  their  education  from  childhood  of 
his  whole  class,  will  the  people  of  the  Free  States  trust 
them  longer  with  the  care  of  their  Union  ?  Is  it  wonderful, 
that  in  every  year,  from  the  days  of  Thomas  Jefferson  to 
the  present,  such  men  as  Brooks,  Keitt,  and  Butler  should, 
in  one  uninterrupted  succession,  have  appeared  on  the  floor 
of  Congress? 

Without  enumerating  other  qualities  inherent  in  slave 
holders,  and  incompatible  with  the  liberties  of  the  Free 
States,  I  proceed  to  examine  the  nature  of  that  power 
which  slaveholders  have  wielded  over  this  Union  for  half  a 
century. 

How  is  it  that  a  body  of  slaveholders,  which  at  no  pre 
vious  period  have  exceeded  in  numbers  more  than  three 
hundred  thousand,  and  which  at  this  day  do  not  equal  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  —  of  which  certainly  not  more 
than  one  thousand  have  any  weight  or  voice  in  devising  and 
conducting  their  policy,  —  have  been  able,  for  more  than  fifty 
years,  to  lead  from  eighteen  to  twenty  millions  of  men 
whithersoever  they  will,  and  to  establish  over  them  a  sove 
reignty  which  is  yet  to  be  proved  not  immovable  and  per 
manent? 

This  power  of  slaveholders  has  its  origin,  —  as  has  been 
already  intimated,  —  first,  from  a  concentration  of  interests 
and  fears  in  the  body  of  slaveholders ;  second,  from  a  total 
want  of  concentration  of  interests  among  the  people  of  the 
Free  States,  combined  with  an  entire  want  of  all  apprehen 
sions  of  danger,  owing  to  their  unquestionable  superiority  in 
physical  power.  This,  then,  is  the  exact  state  of  things 
in  this  Union.  There  are  in  it  about  three  hundred  thou 
sand  slaveholders,  whose  interests  and  fears  are  identical. 
There  are  in  it  at  least  from  twenty  to  twenty-four  millions 
of  men  in  the  Free  States,  who  have  no  special  identity  of 
interest,  and  absolutely  no  fear  whatsoever.  This  state 

4 


26 


of  things  is  one  of  the  sources  from  which  the  power  slave 
holders  wield  emanates.  Their  slaves  are  at  once  their 
pride  and  their  weakness,  the  objects  of  their  dependence 
and  their  fears.  In  1811,  John  Randolph,  who,  with  all  his 
eccentricities,  was  the  truest  to  his  class  and  the  most  hon 
orable  of  all  slaveholders,  and  who  saw  with  contempt  the 
blustering  bravadoes  of  many  of  his  brethren,  thus  exposed 
their  weakness  and  their  terrors  on  the  floor  of  Congress : 
"  While  you  are  talking  of  taking  Canada,  some  of  us  are 
shuddering  for  our  own  safety  at  home.  I  speak  from  facts, 
when  I  say  that  the  night-bell  never  tolls  for  fire,  in  Rich 
mond,  that  the  mother  does  not  hug  her  infant  more  closely 
to  her  bosom.  I  have  been  witness  of  some  alarms  in  the 
capital  of  Virginia."  * 

How  greatly  the  terror  of  their  slave  population  has  in 
creased  since  the  days  of  John  Randolph,  may  be  conceived 
from  the  following  facts.  Then  the  slave  population  but 
little  exceeded  one  million;  now  it  greatly  exceeds  three  mil 
lions. 

From  the  identity  of  the  interests  and  fears  of  slave 
holders  results  identity  in  policy  of  the  members  of  the 
whole  class.  Their  studies,  thoughts,  counsels,  are  absorbed 
and  directed  to  two  objects,  —  how  to  keep  their  negroes  in 
subjection  ;  and,  as  subsidiary  to  this  end,  how  to  keep  the 
control  of  the  Free  States.  By  this  control,  they  present  to 
the  fears  of  their  slaves  the  arm  of  the  Union,  ever  in  readi 
ness  to  keep  them  in  subjection,  and  also  relieve  themselves 
from  the  apprehension  that  that  arm  might  be  extended  for 
the  relief  of  their  slaves. 

The  different  state  of  society  in  the  Slave  and  Free 
States,  of  itself,  gives  the  former  advantages  over  the  latter, 
for  obtaining  control  of  the  affairs  of  the  Union.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  Free  States  cannot,  from  their  state  of 

*  See  Life  of  John  Eandolph  by  Hugh  S.  Garland,  vol.  i.  p.  294. 


27 

society,  always  send  their  best  men  to  Congress.  They  are 
often  compelled,  from  the  circumstances  in  which  Heaven 
has  placed  them,  to  labor,  in  their  respective  vocations,  for 
the  support  of  themselves  and  their  families.  They  have 
no  negroes  to  make  work  for  them  when  they  are  away, 
none  that  they  can  sell  to  make  up  the  deficiencies  of  their 
income  while  they  are  absent.  The  Slave  States,  on  the 
contrary,  can  always  command  their  best  men,  —  best  not 
from  morals,  not  from  virtues,  nor  yet  from  talents,  but  best 
for  their  purposes.  The  slaveholders  form  a  class  of  slave- 
holding  aristocratic  landholders,  who  take  up  the  trade  of 
democracy  in  order  to  get  possession  of  and  victimize  the 
leaders  of  the  democracies  of  the  Free  States.  They  know 
that  these  leaders  have  generally  not  one  spice  of  democracy 
in  their  composition,  but,  like  themselves,  have  taken  up 
that  trade  for  the  sake  of  power,  and  who  naturally  fall  into 
the  slaveholders'  arms  from  likeness  of  object  and  instinctive 
sympathy.  They  have  not,  like  the  slaveholder,  any  negroes 
of  their  own,  but  are  ready,  as  John  Randolph  would  say,  at 
any  moment,  to  become  negro  to  the  slaveholder,  provided 
they  can  get  place  or  pay,  or  the  fodder  they  desire.  These 
men  never  trouble  themselves  what  services  the  slavehold 
ers  will  require.  They  are  ready  to  vote  for  them  in  order 
to  make  new  Slave  States  in  the  old-acquired  territories ;  or  to 
fight  for  them  in  order  to  conquer  new  territories  in  which 
to  extend  the  area  of  slavery ;  or  to  assist  them  in  breaking 
down  the  barrier,  erected  by  compromise,  to  prevent  its  far 
ther  extension ;  and,  to  maintain  the  slaveholders'  triumph, 
do  not  hesitate  to  dip  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  their 
brethren  of  the  Free  States. 

The  slaveholders'  mode  of  operation  in  extending  their 
power  is  well  worthy  analysis.  Having  no  necessity  nor 
inclination  to  labor,  those  of  them  who  have,  from  their 
great  wealth,  more  idle  time  than  the  generality,  devote  them 
selves  to  politics ;  which,  in  their  vocabulary,  means  how 


28 


to  govern  their  slaves  and  how  to  control  the  Free  States. 
Those  being  kept  in  subjection  through  fear  of  the  arm  of 
the  Union,  the  main  study  of  the  slaveholder  is  how  to  keep 
this  arm  in  subjection  to  them.  This  is  the  topic  of  discus 
sion  at  their  homes,  in  their  court-houses,  their  caucuses, 
and  in  their  senate-chambers.  In  their  plantations,  they 
live  in  a  species  of  lordly  solitude.  Though  thus,  mostly, 
they  think  and  reason  and  write  apart,  yet,  from  the  identity 
of  their  interests  and  fears,  their  thoughts  and  reasonings 
result  in  the  same  line  of  policy,  which,  at  their  general 
meetings,  they  agree  upon  and  settle.  Though  widely  sepa 
rate,  the  chiefs  sit  as  spiders  in  the  centre  of  their  respec 
tive  webs,  throwing  out  filaments  to  every  State  in  the 
Union,  in  every  one  of  which  the  threads  of  some  of  them 
find  points  of  attachment  and  reciprocation,  in  custom 
houses,  post-offices,  those  of  contracting  printers,  and  many 
others,  from  each  of  which  ready  sympathetic  responses 
are  returned,  as  sure  and  as  quick  as  by  the  wires  of  the 
telegraph.  These  responses  are  collected  at  Washington, 
in  which  the  character  and  qualification  of  each  member  of 
Congress  is  as  well  known  as  at  his  own  home. 

How  to  secure  and  manage  those  members  of  Congress 
who  are  likely  to  take  a  lead  in  debate,  or  exert  any  influ 
ence  in  either  branch,  never  fails  to  be  a  special  study  of  the 
slaveholders,  which  is  greatly  facilitated  by  the  location  of 
Congress  in  the  city  of  Washington.  Such  men  from  the 
Free  States  soon  become  objects  of  attention  of  men  well 
versed  in  the  arts  of  governing  slaves,  and  of  winning  white 
men  to  their  purposes ;  and  while  the  new  member  is,  per 
haps,  wondering  what  makes  him  such  a  special  object  of 
kindness,  and  is  thinking  only  how  to  reciprocate,  they  are 
examining  him  as  an  article  in  the  market,  — whether  he  can 
be  bought  at  all;  whether  he  is  worth  buying;  whether,  if 
bought,  he  has  sufficient  influence  at  home  to  carry  his  whole 
district  with  him.  These  questions  settled  to  the  satisfaction 


29 


of  the  slaveholders,  and  the  certainty  established  that  there 
will  be  no  flinching,  however  hard  the  service  they  may  exact, 
the  price  at  which  he  can  be  had  being  ascertained,  will  in 
due  time  be  paid,  whether  it  be  by  a  place  in  the  customs,  or 
in  the  post-office,  or  in  the  cabinet,  or  an  embassy  in  Europe 
or  in  China,  and  mayhap,  if  he  stand  trial  in  the  hardest 
service,  by  even  the  President's  chair. 

Let  the  people  look  into  the  history  of  the  Union  ever  since 
the  days  of  Andrew  Jackson,  and  they  can  trace  the  services 
to  the  slaveholders,  by  which  men  from  the  Free  States 
have  attained  their  offices,  and  see  the  humbleness  of  the 
servility  with  which  they  have  executed  all  the  orders  of 
the  slaveholders.  Such  research  into  history  will  show  the 
remarkable  tact  with  which  they  seek  and  select  among  the 
leaders  of  the  democracies  of  the  great  States,  always 
securing  for  their  service  the  most  corrupt  and  the  least 
scrupulous ;  and  what  atrocious  services  they  have  performed 
for  their  masters,  history  also  tells. 

I  recur  to  these  facts,  and  to  history  in  support  of  them, 
not  because  there  is  any  thing  new  in  them,  they  having 
been  at  every  period  subjects  of  common  and  general  obser 
vation,  but  by  way  of  warning  to  the  Free  States,  from  the 
voice  of  history,  of  what  they  may  always  expect,  so  long 
as  they  permit  slaveholders  to  manage  the  affairs  of  the 
Union ;  and  to  urge  upon  them  the  duty,  if  they  mean  to  be 
either  safe  or  free,  to  unite  as  one  man,  and  to  take  the 
affairs  of  the  Union  into  their  own  hands,  and  allow  slave 
holders  no  other  proportion  of  influence  or  power  than  they 
were  invested  with  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
when  it  came  from  the  hands  of  George  Washington. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  illustrate  the  arts  and  opera 
tions  by  which  slaveholders  have  acquired  and  held,  with 
but  few  exceptions,  the  control  of  this  Union  for  more  than 
fifty  years.  In  every  stage  of  their  successful  power,  they 
have  had  the  aid  of  men  who  neither  themselves  nor  their 
constituents  were  slaveholders. 


30 

The  history  of  our  Union  is  little  else  than  a  record  of 
the  triumphs  of  slavery,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the 
ambition,  cupidity,  and  baseness  of  men  from  the  Free 
States.  They  aided  the  slaveholders  in  the  calumnies  and 
falsehoods  by  which  Washington  and  his  friends  were  first 
thrust  out  of  power.  When  Jefferson,  contrary  to  his 
avowed  convictions,  consented  to  make  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  a  dead  letter,  for  the  purpose  of  opening 
an  indefinitely  wide  field  for  the  extension  of  the  slave 
power,  men  from  the  Free  States  seconded  his  plans,  and 
assisted  in  their  execution.  Without  one  trace  of  demo 
cracy  in  their  hearts,  more  than  Louis  Napoleon  has  in  his, 
men  from  the  Free  States  took  up  democracy  as  a  trade, 
thus  obtained  influence  in  the  Free  States,  connected  them 
selves  with  every  administration  which  would  accept  their 
services,  content  even  "  to  be  sutlers  to  the  camp  since 
profits  would  accrue."  Through  the  influence  of  such  men, 
who  have  been  successively  little  else  than  traitors  to  the 
great  interest  of  the  Free  States,  to  liberty,  humanity,  and 
the  progress  of  civilization,  the  slaveholder  has  taken  posses 
sion  of  every  arm  of  the  Union,  even  of  the  fountains  of 
justice  itself. 

The  fact,  therefore,  is  not  extraordinary,  that  a  taint  of 
slave  influence  can  be  seen  and  shown  in  the  morals,  litera 
ture,  and  religion  of  the  Free  States,  —  in  their  halls  of 
justice  and  halls  of  liberty.  If  life,  health,  and  mind  be 
preserved  to  me,  what  is  here  but  a  suggestion  shall  be  made 
manifest  in  detail. 

The  Free  States  have  been  so  long  terrified  or  fascinated 
by  the  serpent  Slavery,  that  escape  from  its  folds  seemed 
hopeless,  until  a  kind  Providence,  watching  over  the  desti 
nies  of  this  nation,  has  at  length  permitted  it  to  exhibit 
itself  in  its  true  character,  —  violent,  lawless,  unprincipled, 
insolent,  and  overbearing  ;  prostrating  liberty  in  the  senate- 
chamber  at  Washington,  its  jaws  red  with  the  blood  of  free 
citizens  at  Kansas. 


31 


More  than  fifty  years'  attentive  observation  of  the  opera 
tions  of  the  slave  power  in  this  Union  compels  me  to 
declare,  that  the  provision  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  which  gave  to  them  the  weight  of  their  slaves  in  the 
balance  of  power  has  been  the  great  misfortune  of  this 
Union,  and  will  be  its  destruction  unless  the  Free  States 
rally  to  its  rescue,  and  take  possession  of  the  government. 
A  longer  continuance  of  it  in  the  hands  of  slaveholders 
seems  practically  impossible. 

I  know,  that,  on  this  subject,  the  Free  States  are  always 
ominously  told,  "that,  if  the  Slave  States  cannot  continue 
to  govern  the  Union,  they  will  go  out  of  it."  It  is  a  question 
of  some  curiosity,  where,  in  such  case,  these  emigrating  gen 
tlemen  will  go,  and  what  they  will  do  with  that  living, 
slippery  luggage  they  must  carry  with  them. 

In  1820,  when  the  Missouri- Compromise  question  was 
in  debate,  John  Calhoun  said  to  John  Quincy  Adams, 
"  that  he  did  not  believe  that  the  question  then  pending  in 
Congress  would  produce  a  dissolution  of  the  Union ;  but,  if 
it  should,  the  South  would  be,  from  necessity,  compelled  to 
form  an  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  Great  Britain" 
Mr.  Adams  asked  "  if  that  would  not  be  returning  to  the 
Colonial  state."  Calhoun  said,  "  Yes,  pretty  much ;  but 
it  would  be  forced  upon  them."  Mr.  Adams  inquired 
"  whether  he  thought,  if,  by  the  effect  of  this  alliance,  offen 
sive  and  defensive,  the  population  of  the  North  should  be 
cut  off  from  its  natural  outlet  upon  the  ocean,  it  would  fall 
back  upon  its  rocks,  bound  hand  and  foot,  to  starve,  or 
whether  it  would  not  retain  its  powers  of  locomotion  to 
move  southward  by  land."  Mr.  Calhoun  replied,  "  Then  it 
would  be  necessary  for  the  South  to  make  their  communities 
all  military"  Thus  this  glorious  plan  of  "  going  out  of  the 
Union"  wilh  result,  according  to  Mr.  Calhoun's  opinion, 
first  in  a  return  to  a  state  of  Colonial  subjection  to  Great 
Britain ;  and,  second,  to  a  hopeful  independence  under  the 


32 


military  prowess  of  three  hundred  thousand  whites  to  keep  in 
subjection  three  million  of  slaves. 

At  the  coming  election,  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  Free 
States,  in  which  the  greatest  proportion  of  practical  wisdom, 
active  talent,  and  efficient  virtue  exists,  will  take  possession 
of  this  government ;  restore  to  the  Constitution  the  propor 
tions  of  power  established  by  Washington  ;  re-instate,  in 
full  force,  that  barrier  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  called 
"the  Missouri  Compromise;"  make  Kansas  a  Free  State; 
and  put  an  end  for  ever  to  the  addition  of  any  more  Slave 
States  to  this  Union,  —  duties  to  be  fulfilled  at  every  hazard, 
even  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  itself.  If  this  Union  is 
destined  to  break  to  pieces,  it  cannot  fall  in  a  more  glorious 
struggle  than  in  the  endeavor  to  limit  the  farther  extension 
of  slavery,  —  that  disgrace  of  our  nation,  and  curse  of  our 
race. 

From  the  depths  of  the  human  heart,  Nature,  abjuring  as 
she  does  all  right  of  one  man  to  have  property  in  another, 
calls  on  the  people  of  the  Free  States  to  be  faithful  to 
these  duties.  The  spirit  of  Liberty,  to  whom  Washington 
intrusted  the  preservation  of  this  Union,  calls  on  them  to 
relieve  her  from  the  shame  of  being  longer  an  instrument 
to  propagate  slavery,  and  a  pander  for  oppression.  Unborn 
millions,  destined  hereafter  to  fill  the  earth  from  the  Missis 
sippi  to  the  Pacific,  cry  to  them,  from  the  depths  of  all 
future  ages,  to  be  faithful  to  their  great  trust ;  exclaiming, 
"  On  your  faithfulness  it  depends,  whether  we  shall  become 
the  depraved  subjects  or  ministers  of  a  slave  despotism ; 
whether  fraud,  violence,  and  an  infamous  traffic,  shall  be  our 
destiny,  or  the  enjoyment  of  the  pure  light  of  liberty,  morality, 
and  religion" 


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